Pages

Search This Blog

Loading...

Who Made Rizal Our Foremost National Hero, and Why?

BY: ESTEBAN A. DE OCAMPO

Dr. Jose Rizal Mercado y Alonso, or simply
Jose Rizal (1861-1896), is unquestionably the greatest hero & martyr of our
nation. The day of his birth & the day of his execution are fittingly
commemorated by all classes of our people throughout the length & breadth
of this country & even by Filipinos & their friends abroad. His name is
a byword in every Filipino home while his picture adorns the postage stamp
& paper money of widest circulation. No other Filipino hero can surpass
Rizal in the number of towns, barrios, & streets named after him; in the
number of educational institutions, societies, & trade names that bear his
name; in the number of persons, both Filipinos & foreigners, who were named
"Rizal" or "Rizalina" because of their parents’ admiration
for the Great Malayan; & in the number of laws, Executive Orders &
Proclamations of the Chief Executive, & bulletins, memoranda, &
circulars of both the bureaus of public & private schools. Who is the
Filipino writer & thinker whose teachings & noble thoughts have been
frequently invoked & quoted by authors & public speakers on almost all
occasions? None but Rizal. And why is this so? Because as biographer Rafael
Palma (1) said, "The doctrines of Rizal are not for one
epoch but for all epochs. They are as valid today as they were yesterday. It
cannot be said that because the political ideals of Rizal have been achieved,
because of the change in the institutions, the wisdom of his counsels or the
value of his doctrines have ceased to be opportune. They have not."

Unfortunately, however, there are still
some Filipinos who entertain the belief that Rizal is a
"made-to-order" national hero, & that the maker or manufacturer
in this case were the Americans, particularly Civil Governor William Howard
Taft. This was done allegedly, in the following manner:

"And
now, gentlemen, you must have a national hero". These were supposed to be
the words addressed by Gov. Taft to Mssrs. Pardo de Tavera, Legarda &
Luzurriaga, Filipino members of the Philippine Commission, of which Taft was
the chairman. It was further reported that "in the subsequent discussion
in which the rival merits of the revolutionary heroes (M. H. del Pilar,
Graciano Lopez Jaena, Gen. Antonio Luna, Emilio Jacinto, & Andres
Bonifacio—O.) were considered, the final choice—now universally acclaimed a
wise one—was Rizal. And so history was made."(2)

This article will attempt to answer two
questions: 1) Who made Rizal the foremost national hero & 2) Why is Rizal
our greatest national hero? Before proceeding to answer these queries, it will
be better if we first know the meaning of the term hero. According to
Webster’s New International Dictionary of the English Language, a hero
is "a prominent or central personage taking admirable part in any
remarkable action or event". Also, "a person of distinguished valor
or enterprise in danger". And finally, he is a man "honored after
death by public worship, because of exceptional service to mankind".

Why is Rizal a hero, nay, our foremost
national hero? He is our greatest hero because as a towering figure in the
Propaganda Campaign, he took an "admirable part" in that movement w/c
roughly covered the period from 1882-1896. If we were asked to pick out a
single work by a Filipino writer during this period, more than any writer
writing, contributed tremendously to the formation of Filipino nationality, we
shall have no hesitation tin choosing Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere (Berlin, 1887).
It is true that Pedro Paterno published his novel, Ninay, in Madrid in
1885; M. H. del Pilar his La Soberania Monacal in Barcelona in 1889,
Graciano Lopez Jaena, his Discursos y Articulos Varios, also in
Barcelona in 1891; & Antonio Luna, his Impresiones in Madrid in
1893, but none of these books had evoked such favorable & unfavorable
comments from friends & foes alike as did Rizal’s Noli.

Typical of the encomiums that the hero
received for his novel were those received from Antonio Ma. Regidor & Prof.
Ferdinand Blumentritt. Regidor, a Filipino exile of 1872 in London, said that
"the book was superior" & that if "don Quixote has made its
author immortal because he exposed to the world the sufferings of Spain, your Noli
Me Tangere will bring you equal glory…" (3) Blumentritt,
after reading Rizal’s Noli, wrote & congratulated its author, saying
among other things: "Your work, as we Germans say, has been written w/ the
blood of the heart... Your work has exceeded my hopes & I consider myself
happy to have been honored by your friendship. Not only I, but also your
country, may feel happy for having in you a patriotic & loyal son. If you
continue so, you will be to your people one of those great men who will
exercise a determinative influence over the progress of their spiritual
life." (4)

If Rizal’s friends & admirers praised
w/ justifiable pride the Noli & its author, his enemies were equally
loud & bitter in attacking & condemning the same. Perhaps no other work
has, up to this day, aroused as much acrimonious debate not only among our
people but also among reactionary foreigners as the Noli of Rizal. In
the Philippines the hero’s novel was attacked & condemned by a faculty
committee of a Manila university (UST) & by the permanent censorship
commission in 1887. the committee said that it found the book "heretical,
impious, & scandalous to the religious order, & unpatriotic &
subversive to the public order, libelous to the govt. of Spain & to its
political policies in these islands", while the commission recommended
that "the importation, reproduction, & circulation of this pernicious
book in the islands be absolutely prohibited." (5) Coming down to our time, during the congressional
discussions & hearings on the Rizal (Noili-Fili) in 1956, the proponents
& opponents of the bill also engaged themselves in a bitter & long
drawn-out debate the finally resulted in the enactment of a compromise measure,
now known as RA 1425.

The attacks on Rizal’s 1st
novel were not only confined in the Philippines but were also staged in the
Spanish capital. There, Sen. Vida, Deputy (& ex-general) Luis de Pando
& Premier Praxedes Mateo Sagasta were among those who unjustly lambasted
& criticized Rizal & his Noli in the 2 chambers of the Spanish
Cortes in 1888 & 1889. (6) it is comforting
to learn however, that about 13 years later, Cong. Henry Allen Cooper of
Wisconsin delivered an eulogy of Rizal & even recited the martyr’s Ultimo
Pensamiento on the floor of the U. S. House of Representatives in order to
prove the capacity of the Filipinos for self- government. He said in part:
"It has been said that, if American institutions had done nothing else to
furnish to the world the character of George Washington, that alone would
entitle them to the respect of mankind. So Sir, I say to all those who
denounces the Filipinos indiscriminately as barbarians & savages, w/o
possibility of a civilized future, that this despised race proved itself
entitled to their respect & to the respect of mankind when it furnished to
the world the character of Jose Rizal."(7) The result
of this appeal was the approval of what is popularly known as the Philippine
Bill of 1902.

The preceding paragraphs have shown that
by the Noli alone Rizal, among his contemporaries, had become the most
prominent/ the central figure of the Propaganda Movement.

Again, we ask the question: why did Rizal,
become the greatest Filipino hero? Because in this writer’s humble opinion, no
Filipino has yet been born who could equal or surpass Rizal as a "person
of distinguished valor/enterprise in danger, fortitude in suffering." Of
these traits of our hero, let us see what a Filipino & an American
biographer said:

"What
is most admirable in Rizal," wrote Rafael Palma, is his complete
self-denial, his complete abandonment of his personal interests to think only
of those of his country. He could have been whatever he wished to be,
considering his natural endowmwnts; he could have earned considerable sums of
money from his profession; he could have lived relatively rich, happy,
prosperous, had he not dedicated himself to public matters. But in him, the
voice of the species was stronger than the voice of personal progress or of
private fortune, & he preferred to live far from his family & to
sacrifice his personal affections for an ideal he had dreamed of. He heeded not
his brother, not even his parents, beings whom he respected & venerated so
much, in order to follow the road his conscience had traced for him.

He did not
have great means at his disposal to carry out his campaign, but that did not
discouraged him; he contented himself w/ what he had. He suffered the rigors of
the cold winter of Europe, he suffered hunger, privation, & misery; but
when he raised his eyes to heaven & saw his ideal, his hope was reborn. He
complained of his countrymen, he complained of some of those who had promosed
him help & did not help him, until at times, profoundly disillusioned, he
wanted to renounce his campaign forever, giving up everything. But such moments
are evanescent, he soon felt comforted & resumed the task of bearing the
cross of his suffering." (8)

Dr. Frank C. Laubach, an American
biographer of Rizal, spoke of the hero’s coueage in the following words:

His
consuming life purpose was the secret of his moral courage. Physical courage,
it is true, was one of his inherited traits. But that high courage to die
loving his murderers, w/c he at last achieved--that cannot be inherited. It
must be forged out in the fires of suffering & temptation. As we read
through his life, we can see how the moral sinew & fiber grew year by year
as he faced new perils & was forced to make fearful decisions. It required
courage to write his 2 great novels telling nothing that no otherman has
ventured to say before, standing almost alone against the powerful interests in
the country & in Spain, & knowing full well that despotism would strike
back. He had reached another loftier plateau of heroism when he wrote those
letters to Hong Kong, "To be opened after my death", & sailed to
the "trap" in Manila w/o any illusions. Then in his Dapitan exile
when he was tempted to escape, & said "No", not once but hundreds
of times for 4 long years, & when, on the way to Cuba, Pedro Roxas pleaded
w/ him to step off the boat of Singapore upon British territory & save his
life, what an inner struggle it must have caused him to answer over & over
again, "No, no, no!" When the sentence of death & the fateful
morning of his execution brought the final test, 30 Dec 1896, he walked w/
perfect calm to the firing line as though by his own choice, the only heroic
figure in that sordid scene." (9)

To the bigoted Spaniards in Spain & in
the Philippines, Rizal was the most intelligent, most courageous, & most
dangerous enemy of the reactionaries & the tyrants; therefore he should be
shot publicly to serve as an example & a warning to those of his kind. This
was the reason why Rizal, after a brief mock trial, was sentenced to death
& made to face the firing squad at Bagumbayan Field, now Luneta, in the early
morning of 30 Dec 1896.

And for the 3rd & the last
time, we repeat the question: Why is Rizal the greatest Filipino hero that ever
lived? Because "he is a man honored after death by public worship, because
of exceptional service to mankind". We can say that even before his
execution, Rizal was the already acclaimed by both Filipinos & foreigners
as the foremost leader of his people". Writing from Barcelona to the Great
Malayan on 10 Mar 1889, M. H. del Pilar said: "Rizal no tiene aun derecho
a morir: su nombre constituye la mas pura e immaculada bandera de aspirationes
y Plaridel los suyos no son otra causa ma que immaculada unos voluntarios que
militan bajo esa bandera."(10) Fernando
Acevedo, who called Rizal his distinguido amigo, compañero y paisano",
wrote the letter from Zaragoza, Spain, on 25 Oct 1889: "I see in you the
model Filipino; your application to study & you talents have placed on a
height w/c I revere & admire." (11) The
Bicolano Dr. Tomas Arejola wrote Rizal in Madrid, 9 Feb 1891, saying:
"Your moral influence over us is indisputable." (12) And Guillermo Puatu of Bulacan wrote this tribute to
Rizal, saying: "Vd. a quien se le puede (llamar) con razon, cabeza
tutelary de los Filipinos, aunque la comparacion parezca algo ridicula, porque
posee la virtud la atraer consigo enconadas voluntades, zanjar las discordias y
enemistades renorosasnreuniren fiestas a hombres que no querian verse ni en la
calle… (12a)

Among the foreigners who recognized Rizal
as the leading Filipino of his time were Blumentritt, Napoleon M. Kheil, Dr.
Rheinhold Rost, & Vicente Barrantes. Prof. Blumentritt told Dr. Maximo
Viola in May 1887 that "Rizal was the greatest product of the Philippines
& that his coming to the world was like the appearance of a rare comet,
whose rare brilliance appears only every other century." (13) napoleon Kheil of Prague, Austria, wrote to Rizal
& said: "admiro en Vd. a un noble representante de la España
colonial." (13a)
Dr. Rost, distinguished Malayologist
& librarian of the India office of London, called Rizal "una perla
hombre" (14)
, while don Vicente Barrantes had to
admit that Rizal was ‘the first among the Filipinos" (14)

Even before the outbreak of the revolution
against Spain in 1896, many instances can be cited to prove that his country
here & abroad recognized Rizal’s leadership. In the early part of 1899 he
was unanimously elected by the Filipinos in Barcelona & Madrid as honorary
pres. of la Solidaridad. (17) Some months
later in Paris, he organized & became chief of the Indios Bravos. In
Jan 1891, Rizal was again unanimously chosen Responsable (chief) of the
Spanish-Filipino Association. (18) He was also the
founder & moving spirit in the founding of la Liga Filipina on
Manila in 3 Jul 1892.

History tells us tat the revolutionary society
known as Katipunan likewise acknowledged Rizal’s leadership & greatness by
making him its honorary President & by using his family name Rizal as
the password for the 3rd-degree members. (19)

A year after Rizal’s execution, Gen.
Emilio Aguinaldo & the other revolutionary chiefs exiled to Hong Kong held
a commemorative program there on 29 Dec 1897 on the occasion of the 1st
anniversary of the hero’s execution & martyrdom. (20)

Of utmost significance in the public’s
appreciation for Rizal’s patriotic labors in behalf of his people were the
tributes paid by the revolutionary government to his memory. In his opening
address at the congress assembled at Malolos, Bulacan on 15 Sep 1898, Pres.
Aguinaldo invoked the spirits of the departed heroes of the fatherland, thus:

Then on 20 Dec 1898 at the revolutionary
capital of Malolos, Pres. Aguinaldo issued the 1st official
proclamation making 30 Dec of that year as "Rizal Day". The same
proclamation ordered the hoisting the Filipino flags at half-mast "from
12:00 noon on 30 Dec 1898" and the closing of "all offices of the
government" during the whole day of 30 Dec. actually, the impressive Rizal
Day program, sponsored by the Club Filipino, was held in Manila on 30 Dec 1898.
(22a)

It should be further noted that both the La
Independencia, edited by Gen. Antonio Luna, & the El Heraldo de la
Revolucion, official organ of the revolutionary government, issued a special
supplement in honor of Rizal in one of their December issues in 1898.

Two of the greatest of Filipino poets in
the Spanish language paid glowing tributes to the martyr of Bagumbayan in
acknowledgement of the hero’s labors & sacrifices for his people. Fernando
Ma. Guerrero wrote on 25 Sep 1898, thus:

The Filipinos were not alone in grieving
the untimely death of their hero & idol, for the intellectual & scientific
circles of the world felt keenly the loss of Rizal, who was their esteemed
colleague & friend. Dr. Camilo Osias & Wenceslao E. Retaña both spoke
of the universal homage accorded to Rizal immediately after his death. Dr.
Osias wrote thus:

Expressions
of deep sympathy came from Blumentritt & many others such as Dr. Renward
Braustetter of Lucerne, a scholar on things Malay; Dr. Feodor Jagor, a German
author of Philippine Travels; Dr. Friedrich Ratzel, an emeinent German
geographer & ethnographer; Señor Ricardo Palma, a distinguished man of
letters from Peru; Prof. M Buchner, director of the Ethnographic Museum of
Munich & a noted Malayologist; Monsieur Edmont Planchut, a French
Orientalist, author of various works & writer on Philippine subjects; Dr.
W. Joest, eminent German geographer & professor at the University of
Berlin; Dr. H. Kern, professor of Sanskrit in the University of Leiden &
celebrated authority on Malay affairs; Dr. J. Montano, a distinguished French
linguist & anthropologist & author of a Memoria on the Philippines; Dr.
F. Mueller, professor of the University of Vienna & a great philologist; a
noted Dutch literary woman who signed H. D. Teenk Willink, author of a touching
& conscientious biography of Rizal; Herr Manfred Wittich, writer of
Leipzig; Dr. Betances, Cuban political leader; Dr. Boettger, a noted German
naturalist & author of works on the fauna of the Philippines; Dr. A. B.
Meyer, director of the Museum of Ethnography at Dresden & eminent
Filipinologist; M. Odekerchen of Leige, director of l’Express, a newspaper
where Rizal wrote articles; Dr. Ed Seler, translator in German of Rizal’s My
Last Farewell; Mr. H. W. Bray, a distinguished English writer; Mr. John
Foreman, author of works on the Philippines & Rizal; Herr C. m. Heller, a
German naturalist; Dr. H. Stolpe, a Swedish savant who spoke & published on
the Philippines & Rizal; Mr. Armand Lelinsky, Austrian engineer &
writer; Dr. J. M. Podhovsky, a notable Czech write, author of various works on
the Philippines & Dr. Rizal. (25)

Among the scientific necrological services
held especially to honor Rizal, the one sponsored by the Anthropological
Society of Berlin in 20 Nov 1897 at the initiative of Dr. Rudolph Virchow, its
president, was the most important & significant. Dr. Ed Seler recited the
German translation of Rizal’s "My Last Farewell" on that occasion. (26)

The newspapers, magazines, & other
periodicals throughout the civilized world – in Germany, Austria, France,
Holland, London, the US, Japan, Hong Kong & Macao, Singapore, Switzerland,
& in Latin American countries—published accounts of Rizal’s martyrdom in
order to render homage to his greatness. (27)

Did the Americans, especially Gov. W. H.
Taft, really choose Rizal out of several Filipino patriots as the No. 1 hero of
his people? Nothing could be farther from the truth. In the preceding pages, we
have shown beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Great Malayan, by his own
efforts & sacrifices for his oppressed countrymen, had projected himself as
the foremost leader of the Philippines until the moment of his immolation,
& this fact was spontaneously acknowledged not only by his own people but
also the elite of other lands who intimately knew his patriotic labors. We have
likewise shown that immediately after his execution, his own people had justly
acclaimed him as their foremost hero & martyr. The intellectual &
scientific world, as we have also demonstrated, was not slow in according him
signal honors as a hero of humanity & as an apostle of freedom.

Mr. Taft, as chairman of the 2nd
Philippine Commission, arrived in the Philippines in June 1900. This commission
began its legislative functions on 1st September of the same year.
On June 11 of the ensuing year the Philippine commission approved Act no. 137,
w/c organized the "politico-military district of Morong" into the
"Province of Rizal". This was the 1st official step taken
by the Taft commission to honor our greatest hero & martyr. It should be
borne in mind that 6 days before the passage of Act no. 137, the Taft commission
held a meeting at the town of Pasig for the purpose of organizing the province.
In that meeting attended by the leading citizens of both Manila & Morong, a
plan was presented to combine the 2 districts into one, but this proposal met
w/ determined & vigorous objections from the leaders of Morong.

"At this point", reads the ‘Minutes of
Proceedings’ of the Taft commission, "Dr. Tavera, of the Federal Party,
who accompanied the commission, asked that he might make a suggestion w/
reference to the proposed union of Manila & Morong provinces. It was his
opinion that in case of union neither the name of Morong nor Manila ought to be
retained. He then stated the custom w/c prevailed in th US & other
countries of naming important localities/districts in memory of some
illustrious citizen of the country. In line w/ this he suggested that the
united provinces be named ‘Rizal’ in memory & honor of the most illustrious
Filipino & the most illustrious Tagalog the islands had ever known. The
president (Taft—O.) stated that the commission, not less than the Filipinos,
felt proud to do honor to the name of Rizal, & if, after consideration, it
decided to unite the 2 provinces, it would have the pleasure, if such action
met the desires of the people, in giving the new province the name of
Rizal". (28)

It is obvious then that the idea of naming
the district of Morong after Rizal came from Dr. Pardo de Tavera, a Filipino,
& not from Judge Taft, an American. It is interesting to know that 2
countrymen of Mr. Taft—Justice George A. Malcolm & Dr. Frank C. Laubach—who
both resided in the Philippines for many years & who were very familiar w/
the history & lives of great Filipinos—do not subscribe to the view that
Jose Rizal is an American-made hero. Justice Malcolm has this to say:

In those
early days (of the American occupation—O.), it was bruited about that the
Americans had ‘made’ Rizal a hero to serve their purposes. That was indeed a
sinister interpretation of voluntary American action designed to pay tribute to
a great man. (29)

Dr. Laubach’s view about the question is
as follows:

The
tradition that every American hears when he reaches the Philippine Islands is
that W. H. Taft, feeling that the Filipinos needed a hero, made one out of
Rizal. We trust this book (Rizal: Man & Martyr—O.) will serve to show how
empty that statement is. it speaks well for Taft that he was sufficiently free
from racial prejudice to appreciate in some measure the stature of a great
Filipino. It was a Spaniard who did more than any other to save Rizal for
posterity—Retaña whose work (Vida Escritos del Dr. Jose Rizal, Madrid, 1907),
is by far the most complete & scholarly than we have(in1936—O.). like
Rizal, he lost all his money in the cause of the Filipinos, & died a poor
man. (30)

Granting for the sake of argument that the
Taft commission chose Rizal out of several great Filipinos as the No. 1 hero of
his people, still we can say that what the commission did was merely to confirm
a sort of fait accompli, & that was that Jose Rizal had already been acclaimed
by his countrymen & the scientific world as the foremost hero & martyr
of the land of his birth. Nay, we can go even farther & concur w/ Prof.
Blumentritt, who said in 1897:

Not only is
Rizal THE MOST PROMINENT MAN OF HIS OWN PEOPLE but THE GREATEST MAN THE MALAYAN
RACE HAS PRODUCED. His memor ywill never perish in his fatherland, & future
generations of Spaniards will yet toutter his name w/ respect & reverence. (31) (capitalization supplied)

Perhaps the following quotation from the
late William Cameron Forbes, an ardent admirer of Rizal & the
governor-general of the Philippines during the construction of the Rizal
Mausoleum on the Luneta, is appropriate at this point. He said:

It is eminently proper that Rizal
should have become the acknowledged national hero of the Philippine people. The
American administration has lent every assistance to this recognition, setting
aside the anniversary of his death to be a day of his observance, placing his
picture on the postage stamp most commonly used in the Islands, & on the
currency, cooperating w/ the Filipinos in making the site of his school in
Dapitan a national park, & encouraging the erection by public subscription
of a monument in his honor on the Luneta in Manila near the place where he met
his death. One of the longest & most important street in Manila has been
named in his memory—Rizal Avenue. The Filipinos in many cities & towns have
erected monuments to his name, & throughout the Islands the public schools
teach the young Filipinos to revere his memory as the greatest of Filipino
patriots. (32)

Now and then we come across some Filipinos
who venture the opinion that Andres Bonifacio, & not Jose Rizal, deserves
to be acknowledged & canonized as our first national hero. They maintain
that Rizal never held a gun, a rifle, or a sword in fighting for the liberty
& independence of our country in the battlefield. They further assert that
while the foremost national heroes of other countries are soldier-generals,
like George Washington of US, Napoleon I & Joan of Arc of France, simon
Bolivar of Venezuela, Jose de San Martin of Argentina, Bernardo O’Higgins of
Chile, Jimmu Tenno of Japan, etc., our greatest hero was a pacifist & a civilian
whose weapon was his quill. However, our people in exercising their good sense,
independent judgment, & unusual discernment, have not followed the examples
of other nations in selecting & acknowledging a military leader for their
greatest hero. Rafael Palma has very well stated the case of Rizal versus
Bonifacio in these words:

It should be
a source of pride & satisfaction to the Filipinos to have among their
national heroes one of such excellent qualities & merits w/c may be equaled
but not surpassed by any other man. Whereas generally the heroes of occidental
nations are warriors & generals who serve their cause w/ the sword,
distilling blood & tears, the hero of the Filipinos served his cause w/ the
pen, demonstrating that the pen is as mighty as the sword to redeem a people
from their political slavery. It is true that in our case the sword of
Bonifacio was after all needed to shake off the yoke of a foreign power; but
the revolution prepared by Bonifacio was only the effect, the consequence of
the spiritual redemption wrought by the pen of Rizal. Hence not only in the
chronological order but also in the point of importancethe previous works of
Rizal seems to us superior to that of Bonicacio, because although that of
Bonifacio was of immediate results, that of Rizal will have more durable &
permanent effects. (33)

And let us note further what other great
men said about the pen being mightier & more powerful than the sword.
Napoleon I himself, who was a great conqueror & ruler, said: "There
are only two powers in the world; the sword & the pen; and in the end the
former is always conquered by the latter". (34) The
following statement of Sir Thomas Browne is more applicable to the role played
by Rizal in our libertarian struggle: "Scholars are men of peace; they bear
no arms; but their tongues are sharper than the sword; their pens carry further
& give a louder report than thunder. I had rather stand in the shock of a
basilisk than in the fury of a merciless pen". (35) And finally, let us quote from Bulwer: "take away
the sword; states can be saved w/o it; bring the pen!

For those who may still doubt &
question the fact that Rizal is greater, far greater than Bonifacio, or any
other Filipino hero, the following observation by Retaña will be sufficient:

In the preceding pages we have tried to
show that Rizal was not only a great hero, but the greatest among the
Filipinos. As a matter of fact, the Austrian savant Prof. Blumentritt judged
him as "the most prominent man of his own people" and "the
greatest man the Malayan race has produced". We have also shown during his
lifetime, Rizal was already acclaimed by both Filipinos & foreigners as the
foremost leader of his people & that this admiration for him has increased
w/ the passing of time since his dramatic death on the Luneta that fateful
morning of 30 December 1896. Likewise, we attempted to disprove the claim made
by some quarters that Rizal is an American-made hero, & we also tried to
explain why Rizal is greater than any other Filipino hero, including Andres
Bonifacio.

Who made Rizal the foremost hero of the
Philippines? The answer is: no single person or groups of persons were
responsible for making the Greatest Malayan the No. 1 Hero of his people. Rizal
himself, his own people, & the foreigners all together contributed to make
him the greatest hero & martyr of his people. No amount of adulation &
canonization by both Filipinos & foreigners could convert Rizal into a
great hero if he did not possess in himself what Palma calls "excellent
qualities & merits" or what Retaña calls "la finura exquisite de
su espiritu,…la nobleza quijotesca de su corazon,… su psicologia toda,
romantica, soñadora, buena, adorable, psicologia que sintetizo todos los
entimientos y aspiraciones de un pueblo que sufria, viendose victima de su
regimen oprobioso…."

8 comments:

It has nothing to question Rizal as our national hero.No one can ever be like Rizal, who showed how he loved his country.He face his death without fear he only deserves to be our hero. And he's heroism will remain in every Filipino's heart.

I don't think there are many (if any) available full versions of books by Esteban Ocampo. These materials are protected by copyright and are very rarely found online. For everything else, try the Downloads section of this blog. Thanks for asking!

Contact Us

Follow us on Facebook:

Get Your FREE eBook

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

There was an error in this gadget

Disclaimer

All data provided are for informational purposes only. We do not claim to own copyrights to all materials published on this site. Please check the "References" section to view a complete list of the resources that have contributed to the data contained herein.